Authorized consumers, merchants or customers often want to check or verify information relating to transaction cards, such as stored value or gift cards. Such information may include the remaining balance on the stored value card or recent transactions carried out using the card. Existing methods of retrieving such information typically require consumers or merchants to authenticate their authorized status and identification at an information providing system or network. In existing methods, authentication for a merchant, consumer or user is generally carried out via Single Sign On (SSO) through a web channel which requires that the merchant access a designated web site, and, once there, to manually key in or enter appropriate information and data so that desired or selected card information can be correctly requested and retrieved.
Also, merchants or consumers are typically required to complete an authentication procedure multiple times on their own computerized network and on the information provider's computerized network. Typically, a merchant initially authenticates identifications (ID) and passwords for authorized users to use the merchant network. This can be cumbersome and time consuming for merchants that have many users authorized to request transaction card information. When a merchant or consumer, via an employee or user, accesses a provider website or computing environment, the merchant must also authenticate at the information provider's computing environment or network as noted above. This process can be unduly repetitive and time consuming if a merchant has a large number of users that may require access to the card information since existing information retrieval methods require that all users authenticate at the information provider's network each time transaction card information is requested.
Additionally, existing card information retrieval methods require dedicated communication lines for a continuous connection between the information provider network and the merchant network such that information can be requested and delivered in a reliable and secure manner. The need for dedicated communication lines can result in an information retrieval method and system that is expensive.
Further, many existing information retrieval systems require that both the information providing system and the receiving merchant or consumer system have or operate on the same operating system or platform so that communications and the exchange of information between the systems can be conveniently carried out. This aspect can be a drawback if the operating systems or platforms of the information provider and merchant systems are not the same. In such a case, communication and information retrieval may not be possible or may be very limited due to the differences in system platforms. One solution to this drawback requires one party to procure a computing system having a compatible operating system, platform or interface to the other party's system so that the parties can communicate and exchange information in a reliable and consistent manner. This approach can lead to increased costs for the party procuring the additional computing system and results in one party having two incompatible computing systems.
Moreover, existing information retrieval methods and systems often use communication protocols and data formats that are compatible with the operating system or platform of the information providing system. As a result, the card information received from the information provider typically comes in a format that is compatible with only a limited number of applications and devices on the merchant's network. This is a drawback since the merchant may want to ability to manipulate the received information in a variety of both current and future applications and devices on his system.
There is thus a need for a method and system for accessing or requesting transaction card information in a platform-neutral way from an information provider system and delivering the information to a merchant or consumer system. There is also a need for a method and system for requesting and receiving transaction card information without having to repeatedly authenticate at the information provider's system each time card information is requested. There is also a need for a method and system for requesting and receiving transaction card information and delivering the transaction card information in a standardized format to enable a merchant to receive, process, store, display and manipulate the received transaction card information in a variety of merchant applications and/or to integrate the received information into a variety of existing or new merchant end-point access devices or applications.